Home Preschool - Week #1

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all as happy to be here as I am. :) I have started something new this week. My little man is going to be 5 in November. Unfortunately, that is past the cut-off for him to go to Kindergarten. Taking him to Preschool isn't really an option for us because around here they are half days, and although right now I am only working 3 days that will not be the case during tax time. So, after a lot of thought, I have decided to put my experience in Daycare's and studying Early Childhood Education to use and do a home preschool with him.

I have scoured the internet (mainly Pinterest), and I have come up with lots of great ideas. We will be working on 1 letter a week, with 2 "themes" to go along with that. So, here is our schedule of activities for the first week. Our letter was "A" and our themes were "Apples" and "Ants".

Reading: Little Man and I went to the library. He searched the aisles choosing books that started with the letter "A". I also chose a non-fiction book about both of our themes for the week. So, during the week we read: Apples Apples Everywhere, Marching with the Ants, Airplanes - Soaring Diving Turning, Alphie Runs Away, The Apple Doll, The Apple Orchard Riddle, and Astronaut PigglyWiggly.

Writing: A few weeks ago I purchased an alphabet learning workbook from the store, so Little Man did the pages corresponding with the letter "A" throughout the week. We have also started practicing writing his name. He can spell and write his first name completely on his own, so now we are working on adding his last name.

Math: I used my Cricut Expression, along with the Cheerful Seasons cartridge to cut out 2.5 inch apples. I wrote the number 1 through 20 on them. Little Man first put all the numbers in order, and then we practiced our addition. I would choose 2 apples, and he would pick the apple with the correct answer on it. We also started a math journal. Once or twice a week, I will write a prompt to help Little Man's problem solving skills.

Science: Our science experiment for the week was about learning why apples turn brown. We took 3 apples slices (little man loved that he was able to eat the rest.. lol), and watched to see what happened when they were left out. We put 1 in a small bowl of water, 1 had a little lemon juice squeezed onto it, and the other had nothing. I explained that the apple is made up of different chemicals, and that when oxygen in the air hits some of those chemicals it has a reaction. The reaction is how the apple turns brown. After the experiment was done (later that evening), we discussed the differences in the time it took the apples to turn brown, and made an entry in his science journal.

Music: For music, the Little Man and I sang The Ants go Marching and This is My Apple

Arts/Crafts: Little Man made fingerprint ants and a superhero apple paper craft. He also colored a few pages with things that started with the letter "A".

Nutrition: When it was time to go to the grocery store, I decided it was a great learning opportunity. We got to the store, Little Man picked out his own little grocery cart (I love that our store has those), and he went around adding things to it that he noticed started with the letter "A". This included some items he had never had before, but he was excited to try. What a great way to get him to try new things! He had: Apples, Asparagus, Avocado, Acorn Squash, Atlantic Salmon, Arborio Rice, Animal Crackers, Apple Jelly, Apricot Mango flavored Greek Yogurt, Apple Juice, Almonds, and Applesauce.

Please keep in mind that all of these activities are spread throughout the entire week. It's been a great week, and we are excited to start week 2: Letter "B": "Balls" and "Beach"!

Dorothy

Cupcake Birthday Card

Good evening everyone! TGIF!! I don't know about you, but I had one heck of a week. Boy was I glad to be able to sneak away into my office tonight. (Even if it was at 11pm!) Of course, this was after our shopping trip to Walmart to get 50 cent Washi. lol

Anyway, so tomorrow (or technically today I guess) is my mother-in-law's birthday. I know, I know, I was cutting it awfully short to just now be making her a card. However, please refer back to the beginning of the post. :)

I was so excited about this card. Not only did I just randomly find the coordinating paper (I'm a paper whore), but I got to use my penny Michael's pearls. Could there be a better ending to the day? I hope you all enjoy this card as much as I have!

Recipe:
Cricut Cartridges: Celebrations, Art Philosophy
CTMH Lilac ink
CTMH Birthday stamp
Pearls
Stickles

Dorothy

Simple Birthday Card

Good afternoon everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying their day. I am sitting at work, so of course I am. lol Well, I decided it was time for a new post.

I haven't been able to spend a lot of time in my office/craft room lately, so today I decided to share a card I made awhile back. My Grandmother's birthday was on Father's Day. She was the one who started my crafting journey.

I can remember as a child, I would sit with her while she was at her sewing machine. It didn't take long before I wanted to help. She was so patient with me, and she tried to teach me all about sewing. She even put me in a few sewing classes. Eventually, she taught me how to cross-stitch (which I enjoyed much more!). She tried to teach me how to crochet, but unfortunately that one didn't stick. However, I do plan on picking it back up eventually. I want to be that Grandma who crochets a blanket for my grandkids. :)

Anyway, when her Birthday was getting close, I decided it was time to make her a card. Here it is. I
hope you enjoy!

Recipe:
Size A2 cream colored card
White cardstock
4 pastel cardstock
4 different embossing folders
Chipboard accent
Ribbon
Sentiment Stamp
Ink

Dorothy

Door Hangers/Deezy Does It

First, let me say Happy Thursday! I'm very excited both for my post this week, and being showcased on Pimp Out Your Blog from Deezy Does It. Please, if you didn't come from her site, go take a look at it. She offers a showcase once a week for someone's blog, and she always offers a prize if you link up. :)

OK, now on to my project for this week. I saw this very awesome tutorial on Pinterest for door hangers for a bedroom door. So of course, my first thought was Little Miss needed one for the nursery. I didn't want to go to the store just for a letter to decorate, so I used what I had around. Once I had finished the one for her door, my little man said he wanted one too. So together, we made his. After finishing both of them, it had only taken a little over an hour of our day, and they looked awesome! Hope you enjoy!

First for hers. I used my trusty Cricut Expression, along with the Artiste cartridge, to cut out the I. I have a light pink cardstock on the back, and the patterned one on the front. I used the cardstock as a stencil to trace the I onto 2 piece of cardboard I had hot glued together. After cutting out the cardboard and paper, I used a spray glue to coat put the paper onto the cardboard. Next, I hot-glued ribbon around the edges. I used a clear drying glue from Close to My Heart all over the front of the I, and added a dusting of clear glitter. Then I hot glued the flower embellishment and the ribbon to hand it to the door. I used a clear command hanger so that we didn't put a hole in the door. I think it turned out great!

OK, my son's was so much easier! Although he has a Cars decorated room, he wanted his W to be camo. Again, using my Cricut and the Artiste cartridge, we cut out the W from a tan and camo cardstocks. I hot-glued 2 pieces of cardstock together and after using the cardstock as a stencil, cut out our W. He got to use the spray glue to put the 2 pieces of paper on the cardboard. Since it was camo and rugged looking, he said he didn't want any ribbon on the edges, so we just hot-glued some at the top to hang it from. He also let me know that "Mommy, I am a boy and I don't need any flowers or anything on my W." So, here it is finished, and SO easy. He loves it!

Dorothy

Updated Bathroom



Happy Tuesday everyone! I wanted to share with you a not so crafty project, but a project none the less. :)

 

Thanks to Pinterest, we spent an afternoon updating our bathroom a few weeks ago. We took our boring old tub and wall (as pictured below), and we put Airstone on it. We went to Lowe's and purchased a box (We ended up having to get a second box because the salesman was wrong. A linear foot is NOT the same as a square foot!) of Airstone, some Liquid Nails, and a piece of trim.

 

Then it was time to go home and start the project. I think it took longer to decide HOW we wanted to put it on then to actually put it on. We laid it all out in our hall. Of course, our little man had to help daddy!

 

 

So, after about 4 hours and $100. This is our newly designed bathroom. We love it! It gives it such character, and really makes it look so much nicer. One of the best projects I have found on Pinterest!

 

 

 

Dorothy



4th of July Fun

Happy Thursday everyone! Ok, I know that the 4th was a week ago, and I don't care. :) I want to share how my family and I spent our day. A little unconventional, yes, but it was such a great day for us. Even with the rain. For some reason, it won't stop raining for us to really enjoy a day other than for a few hours! Today is the first day in awhile it seems that it hasn't rained at some point, and here I sit at work. Some day I won't have to work, and I can enjoy beautiful days like today.

 

Enough about the negative, and back to the positive. So, little miss and I spent most of our day in the kitchen. Here she is in her Bumbo ready to direct me. :)

 

 

I tried my hand at making jam for the first time EVER. Peach jam. YUM! My grocery store was having an awesome deal on fresh peaches (99 cents a pound!), and how could I pass that up? So I came home with 6 pounds. What the hell do I do with 6 pounds of fresh peaches? Well Dorothy, you make jam of course. So I scoured the Internet to find a recipe. I finally decided on one that I had everything it called for. I peeled and cut 5 pounds of peaches. Added some fresh lemon juice and some 5 cups of sugar. Then I had to wait for an HOUR. Who can wait for an hour when this is sitting on your counter?

 

But I did. I waited the hour. Finally, it was time to put it on the stove. I brought it to a boil, and stirred. And stirred. And stirred some more. The recipe said 25 minutes to get it to the jelly consistency. 25 minutes came, and it was still liquidy. So I stirred some more. And stirred. And stirred. I gave up after 45 minutes. Obviously, this was never going to become a jelly. Next time, I will go to the store so that I can use a recipe with Pectin in it. Lesson learned.

 

However, I did end up with 3 jars of very yummy peach syrup. :)

 

Tip for you: if you have to get whatever you are canning to a rolling boil and leave it there for awhile, you don't have to do the water bath to seal the jars. Put them upside for 30-45 minutes and the heat from the jam will seal them. Then turn them over to finish cooling.

 

So while little miss and I were making jam, my son and husband had their own project. Project fire pit! My mother-in-law had given us the metal ring for a fire pit a few years ago for Christmas. Well, 2 years later, the fire pit has been taken out of the box. Hubby went to Lowe's and got some blocks to put around it, and made this on our patio. I love it. AND, it came with a pole and rack to be able to cook over the fire. Score!

 

 

Now that we have finished making the jam, I decided to use some. So once again I went onto the Internet in search of a recipe. I found this oh so yummy recipe for a peach glazed sweet and spicy salmon. I'm salivating a little just thinking about it. I mean what doesn't sound good when you are pairing sweet and spicy together? Bonus points for it only taking 15 minutes. The broccoli salad I served along side it took longer to prepare.

 

Speaking of the salad, I have finally found a salad my son will eat! Broccoli, jicama, dried cranberries, turkey bacon, and a greek yogurt dressing. He had 2 helpings! Yay for healthy food the kiddo likes. Of course, I may have fibbed and told him the jicama was a fruit, but hey, a little white lie like that doesn't hurt. Just like when I make "sweet potatoes". He doesn't need to know it is really butternut squash! :)

 

So here's our 4th of July dinner. Sweet and Spice Salmon, Broccoli Salad, and Cilantro Lime Rice.

 





Well, once dinner was over it was time to enjoy the evening. I'm talking a fire in the new fire pit, sparklers, poppers, and of course.. SMORE'S.

What a fantastic holiday we had. It was one of those days filled with fun, great food, and family time. A perfect day if you ask me. :)

Dorothy

Bow Holder

Hello everyone! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. I know I did. I have lots of projects to post this week that I worked on during my week off work. As much as I wanted to go and spend some much needed, relaxing time on the boat, mother nature did not let that happen. It was so rainy and gross out that I STILL have yet to be out on the water this year. It is July. This is sad and disappointing. Since I just got over my fear, and learned to swim at the end of last summer (you can do it to!), I was really looking forward to that first jump into the water this year. Alas, it has slipped through my fingers, and looks like it will still be a few weeks now before it will happen. Don't you worry though.. it WILL happen soon. :)

Anyway, back to my projects. The first project I worked on was a bow holder for my baby girl. She was in DESPERATE need of one because a girl can never have too many bows. (Although, my hubby says she has plenty and I need to stop even looking at them in the store, like that will happen!) So, I scoured all over Pinterest (it only took me a few minutes to find a picture of what I wanted, but no instructions). That's ok, I don't need instructions. Well, maybe it would have made it a bit easier to do, but I can figure it out. So, if you don't want to spend a long time trying to figure out the best way to do something, here are instructions. Enjoy!

BEFORE

 

 AFTER

So, I started with a $4 picture from Goodwill. I have to say, it was an UGLY picture, but I really liked the frame. Make sure you are looking at the frame when picking one, and not the picture inside. However, also make sure that it is going to be easy to remove the picture. :)

Next, remove the picture and sand the frame down. This is when I took the "before" picture, when it was ready to be spray painted. Then spray paint. I used a paint and primer in one so I could save a step. I put on 3 coats. However, the third coat was just because I was impatient and smudged the paint while doing the next step. lol

Once the paint was (COMPLETELY) dry, I added 6 of the smallest eyelet screws I could find to the inside of the frame. I then added my wire to make 3 rows. There are 12 hook screws added to the bottom of the frame.

After adding all of the hardware, I used a (borrowed, how my husband didn't have one I'll never know!) staple gun to adhere the fabric to the back. Ok, a few tips here. I used a fabric quarter that matched my paint. I ironed my fabric first to get rid of the lines from it being folded. Also, I stapled it THEN cut off the excess. Here's my biggest tip, get help! I wish I would have. Apparently, my little girly hand was not strong enough to squeeze the staple gun with only one hand, so my fabric is not as tight as I would have liked. If I would have asked for help, I could have had my hubby stretch the fabric to make it tighter.

Lastly, I hot glued the flowers onto each corner to add some "curb appeal" to it. I LOVE how it turned out, and all it took was some time and effort.

Dorothy